form technical committees and take concrete steps to form a union fid, just, democratic future for syria. these are in line with what we and our international partners would result from the formation of the commission last month. as we look at ongoing efforts to support the syrian people, let me be clear 24e678 united states stands with the syrian people in insist that can any transition process result in a peaceful, unified, democratic syria in which all citizens are protected and a future of this kind cannot inlewd al-assad. >> [inaudible] >> that's correct. we provide significant assistance to the syrian people, we proside significant, not lethal, assistance to the opposition. but our position on providing lethal aid has not changed. >> to foe low up -- >> i've got folks in the back. >> defense secretary suggested the syrian government has preparations of chemical weapons and the administration is not as concerned about this as they were last week, is that accurate? and what has changed? >> i'm not going to get into assessments beyond what secretary of defense pa net -- panetta said.